


Drunken Nerd

by dalyons322



Category: Fantastic Four (2015)
Genre: Also hints of angst, M/M, cute fluff, mwahahaha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-13 18:38:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4532919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dalyons322/pseuds/dalyons322
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reed gets drunk at a party with Ben and mild shenanigans happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Party

Ben didn’t know what to think of Reed. He was cute, yeah. There was no denying that. He was actually kind of funny (every now and then though). But to Ben, Reed was mysterious and maybe a little crazy. Could you blame him? He almost blew up his own house, for god’s sake. So, yeah… Ben didn’t know what to think of Reed.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

It wasn’t until high school that Ben started to form an idea of Reed. Not that he could explain it or anything, but he just kind of got the gist of who he was. And Reed actually became hot, too.

Huh, well I’ll be damned, thought Ben, after seeing Reed in gym one day (even though Reed is terrible at gym). It was also maybe the first time he had seen Reed shirtless. He never forgot that day (it was practically a journey seeing him shirtless). 

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Ben obviously knew what a crush was. It took him forever to realize he had a crush on Reed. He’s had girlfriends before. But considering his home situation, they were mainly just to give his family someone to fawn over (also there’s the fact his brothers are homophobic asshats). So when he was invited to another “end of year” party a week after he broke up with “Brooke” (for like the third time this day), he finally reluctantly agreed. He had asked who else was coming.

“Uh, that nerd, Reed Richards.” Replied the girl giving Ben his invitation.

Ben shot his head up so fast, he’s sure Quicksilver had nothing on his speed.

“Reed?”

“Yeah.. Bet he’s gonna talk about science and inter-something travel like he did in fifth grade.” 

The girl laughed. Ben didn’t understand why she did. He was about to say, no, his invention thing actually worked. Bitch, but he realized how ridiculous he would have sounded and decided to laugh along with the girl (fake laugh that is).

When the girl left, he turned around and headed for his locker when he spotted Reed.

“Reed!” Ben shouted.

He turned to look in Ben’s direction. He seemed… happy. Not that he wasn’t happy but there’s something… different about him. Eh, he would ask him later.

“So, uh, I heard you were goin’ to the party.”

“Oh, the ‘end of year’ one? Yeah, I decided before the school year was over that I needed to do at least one thing out of my comfort zone… you know, for story purposes.” Said Reed.

Ben laughed. He loved it when Reed got remotely technical. It was cute. 

“You know, I’m going too.” Ben mentioned.

“Oh really? It’ll be nice to see someone I know there.”

“Yeah… you know, I could give you a ride if you like.”

“Really? I mean, it’s totally up to you, but I mean, you’re offering so…”

“No, no, it’s fine.”

“OK then… see you Friday, I guess.” Reed said as he left for his next class.

“Yeah.. I guess.” Ben said to himself.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Friday couldn’t come sooner. He had to figure out the car situation since, you know, he didn’t have a car (which, thankfully, wasn’t too hard considering he lived on a junkyard and his family was always working on cars. It was just a matter of taking it under their noses).

When he got to school in a truck he managed to grab (that at least was working), he saw Reed standing on front of the school surrounded by some of Ben’s other friends. You know, the jocks. And guess what jocks like to do to nerds? Yup, you’re right.

Seriously? Not today, please god, not today, Ben thought as he saw Reed and his friends. He got out of truck and basically stomped his way over to where they were. What happened would be something even he wouldn’t be proud of, but hey, Ben’s gotta do what Ben’s gotta do.

“Hey, sorry about that. Let’s just go before I have to clobber them again.” Ben said.

“Eh, no problem. My hero, I guess.” Reed jokingly said. He smiled to himself. Ben was surprised, but pleasantly. He knew Reed was joking but still…

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

The rest of the day couldn’t go by sooner. He was anticipating the final bell and when it did, it took about ten seconds to register it happened (like everyone was screaming out of joy, he was confused cause he hadn’t heard, it was another story in and of itself).

He was however surprised to find Reed standing by his truck (or at least in the general area). 

“Oh, uh, hey.” (Wow, Ben. Could you be anymore awkward.)

“Hey. Um, you ready to go?”

Ben was confused. “Didn’t it start for like another two-three hours or so?”

“No, it said on the invitation 4:00 pm exactly.”

“Jesus, that isn’t for another 45 minutes.”

“I know. It gives me enough time to change into something more suitable for the occasion. And my ride left without me so.. here I am!” Reed chuckled a little, but not to the point where you couldn’t see he was visibly pissed.

“Well, I’m gonna be driving you anyways. Let’s go. Hop in.” 

And so they did.

“Wait, you remember the way to my house, right?”

“Yeah, don’t worry.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

It’s 15 minutes before Reed finally comes out of the house (he was told to wait outside as he thought it would be better for reasons unknown). And damn if that wait wasn’t worth. He was surprised to find him in a tank top but he didn’t question it because damn, he was hot.

He opened the passenger door from inside and admired the way his arms moved in that tank top of his. 

“Hey, quick question. Can I crash at your place tonight?” Reed asked.

“Why?”

“My parents are going away on a business trip and don’t trust me alone in the hose.”

“Why not?”

“You remember the last time I was left alone in a building? When I almost blew up the city?”

“Yeah, but weren’t you living with other adults at that time?”

“That was my aunt and uncle. Again, parents on business trip. But they refused to look after me since then so not a lot of deals have happened. Also, I already told them you’d be willing to let me stay.”

Ben was surprised at that last comment but he can’t exactly blame Reed. He probably would have done the same thing. Probably.

“Well, yeah. You’re more than welcome to stay, Reed.”

“Cool. Thanks, Ben.”

“No problem. Now I believe we have a party to get to.”

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

As soon as Ben got to the party, he saw how crowded it was and him being the driver, decided it would be wiser to not drink because he wasn’t stupid. 

They got out and went inside the house and found everyone dancing. They both looked at each other and kind of shrugged.

“Sooo, I guess I’ll call you when it’s time to go then?” Ben practically shouted (The music was loud. What else could he have done?).

“Yeah, that sounds ok!” Reed shouted back and they both went their separate ways. Ben instinctively went to the dance floor and… well… danced. He didn’t know Reed went but he didn’t think too much of it. After all, he did say he would call him as soon as he felt they needed to leave. So he decided Reed was on his own for now.

7 HOURS LATER

Ben was tired. As much as he loved dancing, he knew he could only dance so much. He went out to where the pool was (it was quieter) and dialed Reed’s number. He didn’t pick up till the last minute.

“Hey, Bennyboo! How are ya? Still dancin?” 

Of course. Leave a nerd around alcohol, expect him to get extremely drunk. Ben couldn’t be mad. After all, he kept up his personal goal to not get drunk and he did pretty well.

“Ok, hi Reed. We, uh, we need to get goin.”

“That is if you can find me, hero!” He could hear Reed practically cackling and before he had a chance to respond, Reed hung up. That little shit. He was really going to make Ben go on a wild goose chase to find him. Shit. 

He walked back into the house after many minutes of internal debate until he gave up, and searched downstairs. Kitchen? No. Dining room? No. Living room aka dance floor? Not even close. Bathroom? Yeah right. He figured he had to be upstairs somewhere.

So upstairs he went. Bathroom one? No. Bathroom 2? No. Bedroom one? No. Bedroom 2? N—there he was. In all of his shirtless glory. They were surrounded by a few other people making out with mellow music that had a catchy you could dance to. And was Reed doing? Dancing. Shirtless. Dear god. 

It took Ben awhile that Reed was not alone and he was dancing with someone else. A girl. His heart slightly dropped but hey. What could you do. As he was walking closer to them, he noticed the girl had blond hair and not brown. Also she was doing the same awkward “this may be my first time getting drunk” dance. It was actually really funny.

Then Reed noticed “Bennyboo” walking towards him. And he grabbed him in the most intimate hug they’ve ever had.

“Benny! Ya found me! Susie, this is my boyfriend, Ben.” 

Um, what? Did he hear Reed correctly? Boyfriend? I mean, he’s thought about it but…

“Hi, I’m Sue! So you’re the Ben Reed has been bragging about! So nice to meet you!” She stuck out her hand, expecting a handshake. And because he didn’t want to be rude, he shook her hand. 

He turned to whisper in Reed’s ear, “Reed, we need to get going. It’s nearly midnight.”

“Whoa! Midnight? Man, it didn’t seem that long. Huh. Did you hear that Sue? It’s almost midnight! Jeez louise!”

“No way it’s midnight! You’ve only had seven drinks!”

Again, what? He expected Reed to be drunk but not THAT drunk.

“Reed, you’ve had seven drinks?”

“Yeah, is there a problem?” Reed said, still giggling.

“I mean, no, cause you’re not driving, but I didn’t expect you to drink that much.”

Reed responded in giggles. Ben turned to Sue to ask if it was cool with her with him taking Reed home, because she’s the only friend he’s made in life, but he saw her talking to some black dude so he didn’t think she would mind too much. He grabbed Reed‘s tank top and put it in his pocket, then put one hand around his waist and the hand grabbed one arm around his shoulder.

“Aww man, I didn’t even get a name..”

(Is he serious right now?)

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

The trip downstairs was a nightmare. When they finally did get back to the car, Reed was still giggling and muttering things under his breath.

When he opened the car door for Reed, Reed said, “Is this a date or somethin?”

Ben was blushing furiously at that statement because he had been wanting to go on a date with Reed but not like this. He closed the door and went around the truck to get in his seat. He got in and leaned a little bit to see the keys when he felt something on his cheek.

A kiss. Did – did Reed Richards kiss him on the cheek? Not that he didn’t mind it but did this actually happen. 

He looked at Reed with a surprised expression and Reed’s face dropped. Ben was confused as to why the sad face all of a sudden. But nonetheless, he just wanted to get home. He would ask later.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

Once they arrived at Ben’s house thirty minutes later, Ben shut off the car and looked at Reed with thought.

Reed noticed the staring and started to get out of the car.

“W-wait. Where you going?”

“Inside. You probably want me gone.”

“No. I never said that. Or thought about it. Why would you think that?”

“Because of that kiss. You didn’t look happy. Yo—“

“Did I look sad?”

“Well, no. But—“

“No nothing. Get back in here.”

Reed did so.

“See, Richards, there’s this thing called being surprised. I didn’t hate that kiss. I kind of liked it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah! See, here, I’ll give you now.”

Before Reed had a chance to respond, Ben grabbed his face and connected their lips to each other. Ben wondered why he never did this earlier. It was amazing. And he could feel Reed melt right into the kiss. And it wasn’t under the most perfect circumstances but it was still kind of sweet. He broke away from the kiss and said, “See, told you. Now come on. My family’s asleep. We might be able to sneak in without them noticing.”

Reed nodded, got out of the car, and followed Ben. They made it to Ben’s room no problem and that’s when another problem arose. Who would sleep with wh— 

“Reed, you can sleep in bed with me.” Reed looked up. 

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, we’ve learned… interesting things about each other. We’re at a place where we can be more comfortable with each other." While he was saying this, he was undressing himself, leaving nothing but his underwear on.

Ben climbed in bed. He got under the covers and waited for Reed.

“Should – should I get undressed too?” Reed nervously asked.

“I only get undressed for bed in summer. You can if you wa—“

“I want to.”

“Then get undressed.”

“I think I need help.”

Ben helped Reed get undressed until he too was just in his underwear. Ben then grabbed Reed’s hand and led him towards the bed. Ben climbed in first, then motioned for Reed to climb in.

He did.

Once they were situated, Ben wrapped an arm around Reed’s waist and kissed the back of his neck.

“Goodnight Reed.”

“Goodnight Ben.”


	2. The Aftermath

When Reed woke up, he was surprised to see he wasn’t in his own house. He was in Ben’s room. Why? Oh right. The party. Ben. Wait, what about Ben? Did he do something to him? He can’t quite remember.

When he sat up, he was also surprised that he was in nothing but underwear. 

“Huh, I usually never sleep like this.” He thought to himself. There were a lot of questions he needed answers to. One question would be why was he in Ben’s bed? He’d slept over once and all he remembers is that Ben was possessive over his bed. Hell, not even a stuffed animal stood a chance.

Before he could come up with an answer, he felt something shuffle behind him. 

Ben. 

Um. What? Reed had a crush on Ben (and still does) so he’s more than surprised to find that he’s half-naked and in the same bed as Reed. Again: what?

He realized he didn’t have his glasses on. Who knows? Maybe it wasn’t Ben. He looked around for his glasses and was disappointed when he couldn’t find them. Shit. That meant he had to look at him closer. Like basically climb on him to get a good look.

And so he did. He got on the bed and since the bed was close to the wall, he didn’t have to literally climb over Ben, but it was still a matter of not disturbing him. 

Shit. It was Ben. I mean, he’s pretty sure he knew from the start but he wasn’t too sure. He sat down on the bed and put his hands over his head. “Ok, don’t freak out,” thought Reed. “So you’re sleeping in your crush’s bed while he’s in there. No need to freak out….. What happened last night?”

As that thought crossed his mind, he heard a grunt from Ben. Reed turned around to find half-awake eyes staring at him.

“Uh, hi.” Said Reed.

“Hey.” Ben said back.

“Um, what am I doing in your bed half-naked, Ben?”

“Honestly, I can’t explain that in a sentence.”

“Can you explain what led me here then?”

“You really want the answer to that?”

“If it’ll help me remember what happened, yeah.”

“We kissed, Reed. Well—“

“Wait, what?”

“It’s a long story, ok? Can I explain it when I’m more awake? Also, here’s your glasses.”

Reed wanted to protest but when he put on his glasses, he saw how tired Ben was and decided to cut the man a break.

“Yeah, sure, ok.” He laid back down on the bed while Ben went back to sleep. It would an hour or two before he would be actually awake. He felt Ben slightly shiver and did the only thing he thought could do and that was cuddle Ben.

He fell asleep in the midst of that too.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|

Reed woke up to an empty bed. Everything hurt around his eyes and then he realized he forgot to take off his glasses. It’s not that it’s the end of the world when you sleep with your glasses on, it’s that your face hurts so much that to them, it IS the end of the world.

Anyways, Reed was wondering where Ben was when he heard commotion downstairs. Ahh. Makes sense. He was aware Ben didn’t have the greatest family situation, but he knew they would defend him if someone started messing with him. He thinks.

He also knew where pretty much the entire male spectrum of the family stood on gays. They hated them. Ben’s mom was more accepting but everyone else was….. honestly they were hopeless. The thought of where they stood on that made him nervous to be laying in Ben’s bed.

He realized that the commotion downstairs was still going on, so he decided to see what it was about. Knowing that this family was loud, he knew he could just open the door and he’d be practically downstairs.

“What did you DO, Benjamin?” His mother sternly said (more like commanded).

“Nothing, Ma. So I stole the truck. Big whoop.”

“Huge whoop. That truck wasn’t finished yet. There’s a million things that could’ve gone wrong.”

“But they didn’t happen.”

“Why did you do it, Ben?”

“To help a friend out. He was invitee to that party I went to last night, a friend of his flaked out last minute, and I offered to give him a ride. Simple as that.”

“Oh yeah, who was this ‘friend’?” Hid brother said, almost delightfully. 

“Yeah, who was this—it was a ‘he’ you mentioned—who was it?” His mom asked.

He could practically hear Ben sigh out of exhaustion.

“It was for Reed Richards.”

Reed couldn’t see it but he could tell Ben’s mom face just dropped while his brother started busting up.

“That loser? Haha! Oh, I’m never letting you live that down. Oh, that’s priceless.”

“Zachary, shut up.” Ben’s mom said quietly. “Ben, honey, you know how I feel about that Reed boy.”

“Ma, I was just trying to be polite.”

“I know you were sweetheart, and I appreciate that, but don’t go for the insane ones.”

“He’s not insane, Ma! He actually made the portal to work. I saw the toy car disappear and reappear. He’s not crazy, I swear.”

Reed felt….. he didn’t know what he felt. Ben had never defended him like this before, so he wasn’t sure how to react.

“You know what, I’m not gonna even bother. I’m going back upstairs.”

Reed heard footsteps. He scrambled to get back into bed, but miserably failed as Ben looked down at him in confusion.

“Oh… hey. You’re finally awake.” Said Ben. They both sat down on the bed.

“Yeah, uh—“ Reed started to say but was cut off by Ben.

“You eavesdropping?”

Reed didn’t know what to say. He’d never been in this position before.

“Um, I—“

“If you did, that’s fine. Well not fine, but…. you get what I mean.”

Reed did and didn’t. They both looked down. Then Reed spoke up.

“Um, you mentioned you would tell me what happened last night?”

“Oh, yeah. I did. Hmm, how should I start this?”

As Ben was figuring out the best way to explain what happened, Reed was admiring him. Ben was… handsome, really. He can’t quite explain it but he just is.

“Well, you know we went to that party last night, right?”

Reed nodded.

“Well, when we got there, we both went our separate ways, I said I would get you when it was time to leave, and you said it was fine. We were there for seven, maybe eight hours and in that time, I guess you got super drunk. When it was almost midnight, I called you and I could tell you were drunk. You sent me on a scavenger hunt to find you and when I did, you were with other people and you introduced me as your boyfriend.”

Reed’s heart slightly dropped. 

“Ben, I’m sorry. I just—“

“No need to apologize. In hindsight, it was actually kind of funny.”

“It was?”

“Yeah. Anyways back to the story… when I managed to drag you out of the house and into the truck I was driving, you got all… flirty, I guess? It wasn’t even flirty, you were just saying shit like ‘oh, I guess this is a date’ and… yeah. When I got in the car, as I vaguely said this morning, you kissed me.”

Again, Reed’s heart sa—

“On the cheek. After that, you didn’t say anything. I guess you were embarrassed. You said so yourself. And to prove that it was fine, I kissed you back.”

Reed looked up into Ben’s eyes, with worry (just a little bit, not much). “Where?” He asked.

Ben looked at Reed with some confusion. “Huh?”

“Where did you kiss me?”

Reed could see Ben eyeing his lips and that was the only answer he needed.

“Oh…” 

“Yeah… it was a nice kiss, though.”

“Really? Even with my drunken state involved?”

“Even with your drunken state involved.”

“I assume that’s how I ended up here in my underwear, half naked.”

“You, sir, would be correct.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes. Then Reed spoke up again.

“What’s gonna become of us?”

Ben looked at Reed. “Whaddya mean?”

“I mean, what are we now? Like after last night, would that make us boyfriends or…”

Ben suddenly was deep in thought. He hadn’t considered the aftermath of this.

“I dunno. Would you wanna be my boyfriend?” Ben said while looking at Reed. 

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

Ben was… surprised. He hadn’t thought in a million years that Reed Richards would want to date him. And since their emotions and how they felt about each other were basically being laid out on the table, he decided to put in his two cents.

“Well, what if I want you as my boyfriend?”

Now Reed, who had been lost in thought for about seven minutes now, was surprised and ecstatic. He looked up at Ben after hanging his head for so long. He felt the urge to be flirtatious. And Reed NEVER got flirty for anyone.

“Really? Alright then, show me you want me.”

Ben smiled. 

“How so?” He responded.

“Mmm, I dunno. You’re going to have to get back to me on that one.”

They both laughed to themselves over how silly they were being. Reed linked one of his arms with Ben’s and rested his head on Ben’s shoulders.

“What do we do now?” Reed asked, breaking the silence between them. He lifted his head from Ben’s shoulders and they both looked at each other.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, will we tell people or will we not tell people? What do we DO now?”

Ben was taken back by this question. He didn’t know what to do from this point on. 

“Are—are you going to tell your family?” Reed asked, even though he thought he knew the answer.

Again, Ben had to think about this. He would say no but… if this was going to happen between them, there would have to be some form of communication between his family.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I just, I wanna tell them at a time when out lives are… stable? You remember what happened to Nate, right?”

Oh, Nate—or Sophia, actually. Poor thing. She was only seventeen. How could they have done that? She didn’t have anyone to go to. She was literally left out on the streets. They used to see her occasionally on their way to school (even though she never saw them), and then one day, she wasn’t there. She couldn’t be dead, as they would’ve heard by now (with it being two years since and all), but they could never say for sure.

“Mm-hmm.” 

“Maybe someday in the future but… not now.”

Reed rested his head on Ben’s shoulder again. He didn’t know what to do. But at least he could be clueless with Ben. His boyfriend.

God, that’s probably never going to get old

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YESSSSS I'M BACK
> 
>  
> 
> Let me know if you want to see more
> 
> (Perhaps them coming out while they're superheroes?)
> 
> Either way, it'll be angst and fluff in one chapter and I LIVE FOR THAT TYPE OF SHIT

**Author's Note:**

> THIS SHIP HAS RUINED MY LIFE THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> (Let me know what you thought in the comments. I enjoy seeing people react in different ways.)


End file.
